Apple iPhone 4S

Apple's iPhone is in the crosshairs of Samsung and its Galaxy S III. So, what better device to consider as an alternative to the new handset than Apple's latest and greatest smartphone? The iPhone 4S starts at $199, and comes with 16GB of storage, the Retina display, and iOS 5arguably the best mobile software on the market. It's the device all competitors wish they'd created.

After a long wait and considerable speculation, Samsung finally unveiled the Galaxy S III smartphone May 3. And by all accounts, it's quite impressive, boasting a 4.8-inch PenTile Super AMOLED (active-matrix organic LED) display, an 8-megapixel camera, and up to 32GB of storage, initially. Add that to the Bluetooth 4.0 support, near-field communication, or NFC, for making mobile payments along with the quad-core Exynos 4 Quad system-on-a-chip, and it's clear Samsung has its sights set on Apple with its latest handset. Still, the device won't be coming to Europe until later this month and North America till next month. So, for the next several weeks, there will be many customers who will want a new handset and just don't have the time (or desire) to wait for Samsung's latest device. For those folks, finding a new device now that can at least come close to competing against the Samsung Galaxy S III is extremely important. Luckily for those people, the following slides will provide them with all the devices they might want to consider before heading down to the store. The Galaxy S III isn't here yet, but the following smartphones in this slide show are available right now. Each one will deliver something that will appeal to customers.

Don Reisinger is a freelance technology columnist. He started writing about technology for Ziff-Davis' Gearlog.com. Since then, he has written extremely popular columns for CNET.com, Computerworld, InformationWeek, and others. He has appeared numerous times on national television to share his expertise with viewers. You can follow his every move at http://twitter.com/donreisinger.